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VIPW(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual VIPW(8)
NAMEvipw -- edit the password file
SYNOPSISvipw [-ddirectory]
DESCRIPTION
The vipw utility edits the password file after setting the appropriate
locks, and does any necessary processing after the password file is
unlocked. If the password file is already locked for editing by another
user, vipw will ask you to try again later. The default editor for vipw
is vi(1).
When run without options, vipw will work with the password files in /etc.
The -d option may be used to specify an alternative directory to work
with.
The vipw utility performs a number of consistency checks on the password
entries, and will not allow a password file with a ``mangled'' entry to
be installed. If vipw rejects the new password file, the user is
prompted to re-enter the edit session.
Once the information has been verified, vipw uses pwd_mkdb(8) to update
the user database. This is run in the background, and, at very large
sites could take several minutes. Until this update is completed, the
password file is unavailable for other updates and the new information is
not available to programs.
ENVIRONMENT
If the following environment variable exists it will be utilized by vipw:
EDITOR The editor specified by the string EDITOR will be
invoked instead of the default editor vi(1). This can
be used to allow a script to non-interactively modify
the password file.
PW_SCAN_BIG_IDS See pwd_mkdb(8).
SEE ALSOchpass(1), passwd(1), passwd(5), adduser(8), pw(8), pwd_mkdb(8)HISTORY
The vipw utility appeared in 4.0BSD.
BUGS
The mechanism for checking for password file modifications requires that
the modification time of the password file changes. This means that in a
default configuration where file system timestamps are not calculated
with sub-second precision, EDITOR has to run for at least one second.
Non-interactive editor scripts should invoke sleep(1) or equivalent to
ensure this happens.
FreeBSD 10.1 February 14, 2012 FreeBSD 10.1